Jeremy Hunt considers barring walk-in patients from A&E

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Northerner

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The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has floated the idea of stopping walk-in patients from attending hospital emergency departments in an attempt to head off a winter crisis in the health service.

NHS England has denied it plans to pilot an idea that would require patients to consult their GP or NHS 111 before being allowed to go to A&E.

However, Dr Helen Thomas, its national medial adviser for integrated urgent care, said the health secretary was considering testing the idea.

“Jeremy Hunt has mentioned to some of my colleagues, maybe we should have a ‘talk before you walk’ and we may pilot that,” Thomas told the doctors’ magazine Pulse.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...nt-considers-barring-walk-in-patients-from-ae
 
Omg. 111 in my area imo leave a lot to be desired. When I phoned them about one of lefties toes, the call handler told me they would call me back in 6 hours .
 
Well, statistically there isn’t much doubt that most walk-ins walk out again, but I’ve seen many a walk-in admitted with a life threatening condition, so a blanket ban will kill a few people. Is that a price worth paying? The other thing is that most upper limb fractures are walk-in.

So it’s a superficially attractive idea, but impractical, and carries risk.
 
If that's the case then I'd be dead! I was a walk in at a&e, on a sunday evening, when I was suffering a dka. I didn't bother with 111 as I'd looked up all my symptoms on NHS website, my breathing was becoming compromised by then and the advice on the website was seek immediate medical treatment. My consultant told me going to a&e probably saved my life, if I'd left it till Monday to see a gp I'd likely have been in a coma or at worse dead!
A few years ago my nephew was ill, his health deteriorated very quickly, he had meningitis, he's very lucky to be alive due to his parents rushing him to a&e, 111 had said give him calpol and monitor.

Also, this could result in more people dialing 999 for an ambulance and we all know how stretched they are. It worries me that this bozo is in charge of the health service but knows sod all about illnesses and health.
 
Lucy Honeychurch said:
If that's the case then I'd be dead! I was a walk in at a&e, on a sunday evening, when I was suffering a dka. I didn't bother with 111 as I'd looked up all my symptoms on NHS website, my breathing was becoming compromised by then and the advice on the website was seek immediate medical treatment. My consultant told me going to a&e probably saved my life, if I'd left it till Monday to see a gp I'd likely have been in a coma or at worse dead!
A few years ago my nephew was ill, his health deteriorated very quickly, he had meningitis, he's very lucky to be alive due to his parents rushing him to a&e, 111 had said give him calpol and monitor.

Also, this could result in more people dialing 999 for an ambulance and we all know how stretched they are. It worries me that this bozo is in charge of the health service but knows sod all about illnesses and health.
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Exactly, Lucy, two fine examples of folk who would not be here if such a system operated, if only because of the delays at the door. You’re right about Hunt, as well. He knows nothing about deadly health conditions that people can have and still walk in. At the very least, they save money on ambulances.
 
I think J hunt does not care whether people live or die as long as he can say it is nothing to do with him and saving the NHS is his top priority. i think if people think he and the government want to save the NHS they are very deluded. the amount of money that is being siphoned off into private healthcare would make your hair curl. this is just another J Hunt way of bashing the NHS service so it is not fit for anyone to use unless you can afford to go private or you are half dead in an ambulance.
 
I managed to walk into A&E just before I went into shock from loss of blood due to an internal bleed. Quick transfusion, overnight obs and home the next day. Getting there early saved a lot of time and effort.
 
Pete didn't manage to walk the first time (well he had a broken leg with only a temporary plaster and I drove him to the Ambulance entrance deliberately on the basis I might be more likely to find a wheelchair - the ambulance man sorting his vehicle out after telling me I couldn't park had the situation explained to him and quickly got a wheelchair so that was OK - and his X-rays he'd had taken at an A&E elsewhere 2 days previously quickly revealed his 5 broken ribs and the pneumothorax they never mentioned at the first on. Of course - having to get himself into the kitchen unaided that morning to get my Hypokit and then get back where I was on the floor spark out and inject me possibly wouldn't have helped a great deal. I really didn't want to drive right after that but had to) but did the second time when his catheter was blocked a week or so after his prostatectomy - then having to wait nearly an hour for triage didn't help the pain his already over full bladder was giving him I don't suppose but there you go. We had a laugh though - the triage nurse having read his latest hospital notes was mystified as to why he'd asked to see the on call neurologist when we arrived or why he'd apparently been told to do that if he had problems?

No - Urologist ! LOL
 
I took my hubby to hospital when he'd hurt his back, he had had a heavy landing with his paraglider, he was in a lot of pain and couldn't lie comfortably, and was asking me for painkillers stronger than paracetamol. Well to me that says you should at least have an X-Ray to find out what's going on, you don't mess about with backs! The only way of being seen at hospital without a GP referral is via A&E; hubby was still capable of walking (and had driven himself home after the accident) so I took him. Would they rather I'd rung an ambulance when I can drive and I've got a car sitting outside?! Actually if you read any of the paramedic memoir-type books that are available, they get VERY frustrated at being called out to people whose condition is not immediately life threatening and who are perfectly capable of getting themselves to hospital, either by bus or taxi or a friend/partner/neighbour etc who has a car and could take them! It turned out my hubby had a compression fracture of one of his vertebrae 😱
The chap who booked him in said it's amazing how many people actually walk in with broken necks and backs!

Another instance - my daughter accidentally got smacked in the face with a hockey stick at school (lightweight plastic one thankfully, not one of the old-fashioned wooden ones!) and was complaining of blurred vision. I asked an optician for advice first and was told to take my daughter to the GP. So I made an appointment with the GP, only for them to ring me back ten minutes later and tell me to take her to A&E, as she could have an internal eye injury which the GP would be unable to deal with. Well I tried to keep her out of hospital... She might have had a detached retina, which you don't want to ignore, or there might have been nothing wrong with her at all, should I ring an ambulance for that then? No of course not, I took her. And luckily no injury was found and the symptoms resolved on their own within a few days, but that might not have been the case.

How has it happened that the person in charge of the nation's health clearly doesn't give a flying fig about it?! 😡😡😡 If people are no longer allowed to take themselves to hospital then more ambulances will be called, and the ambulance service can't cope with demand as it is :(
 
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